> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Pomeroon Cassava Maker, Certified Four Years. Guyana Has 101 Counters. Two Are Abroad. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/centaur-holdings-pomeroon-gnbs-certification-iso-export-ladder-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-27T12:13:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-04T05:16:39.000Z - Description: Centaur Holdings of the Pomeroon took the Made in Guyana mark on 24 October 2022. The state spent G$462.5 million on agro-processing in the first half of 2026 and runs 101 Guyana Shop counters at home and two abroad. The certificate foreign buyers ask for is a different one. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Business, Guyana, Analysis **Quick summary:** Centaur Holdings of the Pomeroon took the Made in Guyana mark on 24 October 2022 and has built a product line from cassareep to carambola on it. The state spent G$462.5 million on agro-processing in the first half of 2026 and runs 101 Guyana Shop corners at home. It runs two abroad. By LCN Business Desk A cassava processor on the Pomeroon River has spent four years proving what a certificate is worth. Centaur Holdings, whose agro-processing brand is Green Diamond Foods, secured the right to use the Guyana National Bureau of Standards Approved Made in Guyana Standards Mark on **24 October 2022**, the [Bureau](https://gnbsgy.com/centaur-holdings-products-made-in-guyana-rooted-in-heritage/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) records. The company was founded in 2016 and works out of the Pomeroon's Amerindian food tradition. Its line runs from cassava cassareep and cassava bread to plantain flour, a power mix porridge, teas and a carambola fruit mix. Oscar Richmond is chief executive and Michellina Richmond is general manager. "For Centaur Holdings, certification has meant trust and credibility, stronger brand recognition, enhanced competitiveness, market access, and support for the national economy," Michellina Richmond told the Bureau. "Certification is not just a badge, it is a gateway to growth, visibility, and the preservation of cultural pride." ## What has the certification programme grown into? A register that roughly doubled in eighteen months. The Made in Guyana programme counted 29 certified companies in June 2023 and 34 by that September. By January 2025 the total had passed fifty, the [Guyana Chronicle](https://guyanachronicle.com/2025/01/27/more-than-50-companies-certified-under-gnbs/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) reported. Centaur, certified in October 2022, sits among the earliest. The mark certifies that a product is manufactured in Guyana to a specified standard, and it is issued by the Bureau after audit. Behind Centaur's use of it, the Bureau records conformance to quality control systems, traceability, hygiene and production protocols. The [application requirements](https://gnbsgy.com/certification/made-in-guyana-certification/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) are published. ## What has the state built around those firms? Processing plant and shelf space, and the Treasury has the figures. The Ministry of Finance's [2026 Mid-Year Report](https://finance.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mid-Year-Report-2026.pdf?ref=lacaribenanews.com) sets out the first half. | Item | First half of 2026 | | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Spent on agro-processing | G$462.5 million of G$745 million budgeted | | Bartica agri-business hub | Fully operational, with a Guyana Shop and cold storage | | Canal No. 1 dehydrating facility | Commissioned April 2026 | | Yarrowkabra Regional Food Hub | Substantially complete expected by end 2026 | | Lethem fruit pulping facility | Construction expected to commence | | Operators trained | Over 240, in packaging and labelling, food safety, contract negotiation and preservatives. A further 300 expected in the second half | | New products on the Guyana Shop | 152 | Source: Mid-Year Report 2026, Ministry of Finance, paragraphs 3.95 to 3.97. ## Where does that shelf space actually reach? Almost entirely inside Guyana. The report counts **101 Guyana Shop corners** operating locally, in every administrative region except Region Eight, with three more due in Regions Three, Eight and Ten. It counts **two** abroad, both in Bridgetown, Barbados. A hundred and one at home and two overseas is a distribution network built for the domestic market, and it is working. Guyana's non-oil economy is where the national forecast was cut, set out in [Guyana's Economy Grew 33.3 Per Cent](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-gdp-first-half-2026-oil-non-oil-mid-year-report/), and the shelf is one of the few places a small producer meets a buyer without leaving the country. Where a Guyanese product has travelled, it has travelled processed. A Lusignan pepper sauce was launched in Doha under a national branding theme, reported in [Guyana's President Launched a Lusignan Pepper Sauce in Doha](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/umami-guyana-qatar-agro-processing-export-2026/). At the other end of the chain, Wakenaam growers produce heavily and lose the margin before Georgetown, in [Wakenaam Farmers Produce Big, But Prices Squeeze Profit](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/wakenaam-farmers-prices-georgetown/). ## What does the next rung require? A different certificate. The Made in Guyana mark is a national mark, awarded by the national standards body, and it carries weight with Guyanese buyers and with the Guyana Shop. A supermarket chain in Trinidad, a distributor in Barbados or an importer in North America or Europe is generally asking for something else: a food safety management system certified to ISO 22000, or a quality management system certified to ISO 9001. This newspaper set out that gap in May, in [The Quality Gap Caribbean Agro-Processors Cannot Afford to Ignore](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/the-quality-gap-caribbean-agro-processors-cannot-afford-to-ignore/). The recurring failure points are not the audit itself. They are gap analysis, documentation, internal audit capability and keeping the system alive after the certificate arrives, which is where a firm with a lean management team and no dedicated quality officer tends to lose it. ## Does the capability exist in Guyana? It does, and it has run the national standards body. Candelle Bostwick is a former Executive Director of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, the body that awards the Made in Guyana mark Centaur holds. She oversaw Guyana's national quality infrastructure at the point the country began its oil transformation, and the failures she went on to see across the private sector were the ones set out in that May report: documentation, risk management and internal audit capability, rather than any shortage of willingness. She took that into private practice. Through [CKB Enterprise Guyana](https://www.ckbgroupguyana.net/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) she delivers ISO 9001 implementation and training, gap analysis, internal and supplier audits, and management system documentation. For an agro-processor the relevant standard runs past ISO 9001 into **ISO 22000**, the food safety management framework covering the chain from farm to shelf. That is the second certificate, and it is the one CKB builds towards. The training is where the second certificate is won or lost. Her Quality Accelerator Series and ISO webinars are built to hold a system together after the auditor leaves, so compliance becomes operational rather than ceremonial, and a certificate does not lapse inside twelve months. CKB serves micro, small and medium enterprises alongside corporate teams, and runs sessions for entrepreneurs with no quality management background at all, which is the position most Pomeroon and Essequibo processors are actually in. That is what a practitioner is for, and it is the part a firm the size of Centaur cannot buy off a shelf. The barrier to a second certificate is rarely the standard and usually the build: writing the procedures, running the internal audits, holding the system together through the first surveillance visit. Someone who has sat on the certifying side of a national standards body knows what an auditor will open the file to look for. A processor that has already passed a Bureau audit has done a version of that once, with help. The regional target has already moved once. CARICOM's 25 by 2025 initiative, aimed at cutting a food import bill of more than US$6 billion by a quarter, was extended to 2030, covered in [Belize Emerges as CARICOM's Food Security Benchmark](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/belize-emerges-as-caricoms-food-security-benchmark-as-regional-deadline-slips-to-2030/). Cutting an import bill means somebody's product reaching somebody else's shelf. ## What comes next for the company? More lines, on its own account. Centaur told the Bureau it plans to expand its product range to take in more of Guyana's agricultural produce, and its advice to other Indigenous and small businesses was to "start with passion, dedication, and determination. Stay consistent, invest in quality systems, tell your story, and think long-term". The sectors around it are being told the same thing in different words. The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association named agro-processing among the sectors that must scale as GuyExpo opens in November, reported in [Guyana's Manufacturers Told Clothing, Hotels and Tech to Grow](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyexpo-2026-gmsa-khan-non-oil-sectors-local-content-schedule-2026/), and more Guyanese are working for themselves, in [More Guyanese Are Working for Themselves](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-self-employment-informality-world-bank-study-2026/). Four years after its certificate, Centaur Holdings sells cassareep made to a documented standard. The state has built the hubs, the cold storage and the hundred and one corners. Two of those corners are outside the country. ### What the title card shows - **24 October 2022:** the date Centaur Holdings secured the right to use the Guyana National Bureau of Standards Approved Made in Guyana Standards Mark. - **29 to more than 50:** the growth of the Made in Guyana register, from 29 certified companies in June 2023 and 34 that September to more than fifty by January 2025. - **G$462.5 million of G$745 million:** spent on agro-processing in the first half of 2026\. Ministry of Finance Mid-Year Report 2026. - **101 and 2:** Guyana Shop corners operating at home, in every region except Region Eight, against two abroad, both in Bridgetown, Barbados. - **Over 240 operators trained** in the first half in packaging and labelling, food safety, contract negotiation and preservatives, with 300 more expected. ## Frequently Asked Questions Who is the Pomeroon agro-processor? Centaur Holdings, founded in 2016, whose agro-processing brand is Green Diamond Foods. Oscar Richmond is chief executive and Michellina Richmond general manager. Its products include cassava cassareep, cassava bread, plantain flour, porridge mix, teas and a carambola fruit mix. What is the Made in Guyana mark? A certification mark issued by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards after audit, certifying that a product is manufactured in Guyana to a specified standard. Centaur secured the right to use it on 24 October 2022. Is that enough to export? Generally not on its own. Supermarket chains and distributors abroad usually require a food safety management system certified to ISO 22000, or a quality management system certified to ISO 9001\. The Made in Guyana mark is a national mark and carries weight with Guyanese buyers. What has the state spent on agro-processing? G$462.5 million of a budgeted G$745 million in the first half of 2026, on facilities including the Bartica agri-business hub, the Canal No. 1 dehydrating facility, the Yarrowkabra Regional Food Hub and a fruit pulping facility at Lethem.